Valcarlos>Roncesvalles - any off from the road?

[Sarah80]

Back in summer I walked this route and this stretch was 90% on a long winding upwards road. I've watched vlogs of others doing this path and I've seen them in woods so I'm guessing there are earlier paths that do hook up with the Napoleon route earlier than I did which was about 1km from Roncesvalles next to a big barn looking building on the left (ibaneta)?

Where can you come off on this road to walk in nature instead of along the road? I'll be there on Saturday walking this stretch and don't fancy the Tarmac again.

Cheers

 

[wayfarer]

Hi Sarah, just after Valcarlos the trail leaves the road on your left and plunges down to a ravine then back up again. This is to avoid a long turn in the road, if my memory serves me right this happens twice. The path can be very muddy and is hard going on the way back up. My advice for what its worth would be to stay on the main road, its a little longer but a lot easier.
Wishing you a Happy New Year and a safe and Buen Camino.

 

[mspath]

A good English description of the Valcarlos alternate is this in the Navarre website http://www.turismo.navarra.es/eng/p...on-practica/etapas/etapa-1-camino-frances.htm.

When in SJPdP pick up a free copy of the map sheet showing the alternate route with photos of the important turns into the woods

Once in Navarre the road N135 borders the alternate. In inclement weather ie rain, fog or snow it is much safer to walk on the left verges of the road than to follow the alternate path into the woods.

 

[Al the optimist]

I remember that steep climb up through the woods up to Ibaneta with dread! Yes there was a reasonable amount of pleasant off road. All in all I had a very enjoyable, quiet and lonely enjoyable day in May 2014.

 

[dougfitz]

In 2010, I recall the major stretch of road was a stretch of the N135 after Valcarlos. I don't recall it all being on the road, but major parts of the stretch were. It is about six km from Valcarlos before the path leaves the road and you walk in forest for the rest of the time to Roncesvalles. When I walked, the way marking was pretty good for the point where the camino leaves the road (but that just means that it wasn't a marker that I missed seeing!).

 

[Sarah80]

The weather in Northern Spain seems to have just taken a tun for the worse with rain forecast for each of the first 6 days.

In this case, looks like the road is the best bet.

I hope that forecast is out, I had a couple of days rain in Galicia that were pretty miserable mostly because I could never get my clothes properly dry (dryers on the albergue never seem to get anything truly dry!)